“Crooked House”–a poem written with her non-dominant hand by Cindy Bellinger

One of the pleasures of the Story Circles Network “Land Full of Stories” Conference I just came home from was meeting Cindy Bellinger. I attended her workshop on journaling, bought her new book on journaling, and enjoyed having her participate in my workshop “Always Coming Home.”

Her website describes Cindy as “a Western girl through and through, I’ve wrangled horses, taught ballet, waitressed in a truck stop, worked as a maid, a nude model, governess, teacher, store manager, house painter and publisher. I’ve tended gardens, tended bar, broke a wild horse, mushed a dogsled, flown an airplane…and all this rolls recklessly into poetry and lands usefully into journalism as background noise caught between the lines.”

Cindy’s book is: “Journaling for Women Write, Doodle, Scribble! and Meet Yourself Up Close” and has some excellent ideas and techniques inside. She says she’s “the world’s only Journal Whisperer; not to tame you but coax you to your own wild edges.”

In my “Always Coming Home” workshop, we opened small treasure purses and used the randomly chosen objects as writing prompts. Cindy’s was a salt shaker that sat crooked. She wrote the following poem using her nondominant hand.

CROOKED HOUSE

crooked house
lost, little man inside
bent one way
far away from straight
the end of the road
all the meaning is there
from the crookedness
with stilts to stand on
he looks out with closed eyes
and knows how
to slow the pigeons enough
to let them eat moss alone